A Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial on the Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Resiliency, Anxiety and Perceived Stress in Women with Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is considered to be the most common cancer diagnosis in the world. Psychological distresses lead to increase in the mortality rate among patient with breast cancer. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on resiliency, anxiety and stress in women with breast cancer. In a double-blind randomized controlled trial, during May to August 2017, 32 women with non-metastatic breast cancer who referred to oncology department of three public hospitals in Ahvaz were selected using a respondent-driven sampling (RDS) and were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups via block randomization method. ACT was provided to the experimental group for eight consecutive weekly ninety minutes and the control group was merely received the treatment as usual (TAU, Pharmacotherapy). Resiliency, anxiety and stress indices were evaluated at two intervals of pre-test and post-test. Data were analyzed by covariance analysis and Pearson correlation by SPSS software, version 22. The primary outcomes showed that eight weeks of acceptance and commitment therapy were effective on the three variables of resiliency, anxiety and stress (all P<0.001). Secondary outcomes also showed that there is a significant reverse relationship between resiliency variable and anxiety and based on the stress (P<0.05). These results suggest that the therapeutic models of the third wave are effective and could be associated with clinical applications in the field of cancer prevention and treatment.